Title: Red Steel #1: The Beginning of Red Steel Part 2

Author: Rabbitearsblog

Universe: X-Men

Rating:  T -  For some violence

Summary:  This series will be about Colossus taking on a secret identity after the events of AvX and trying to help out the city, while trying to atone for what he had done during AvX. Also, there will be a new villain introduced that Colossus will have to face!

Chapter 2: The Mysterious Nigel Faust

The airship continued to sail over New York City until it reached an extremely tall glass building that was located near a large lake.   The glass building was over one thousand feet tall and as the sun bore down on it, it glittered with such beauty, that anyone from miles around can see the beauty of this building.   Piotr gazed at the building in such wonder, but then he remembered why he was riding on the airship and continued to concentrate on the mission at hand.   The airship then headed to the back of the glass building where the lake is; however, when the airship was about to land on the lake, a secret tunnel opened up in the lake and the airship started landing inside the tunnel.   Piotr looked on with awe at this new development and when the airship finally landed, Piotr quickly jumped off the airship and ran around a dark corner to hide.   The door to the airship then opened and Nigel Faust stepped out of the airship with two large security guards surrounding him and started walking towards a small door at the end of the tunnel.   As Nigel Faust and the security guards disappeared from the tunnel, Piotr then came out from the corner and started running towards the door that Nigel entered in and he starting following Nigel and the guards through a lavish looking hallway at a safe distance.   When Nigel and the guards reached a small office at the end of the hallway, Piotr quietly stood by the door to the office, trying not to be seen.   Nigel than began talking to his security guards about his plans:

“Well, gentlemen, I think that we have really proven ourselves to the citizens of New York today.   Those miserable aliens did not know what was coming when we arrived in the airships attacking them out of the city!   However, it seems that our “negotiator” was impressed by today’s performance and wants to congratulate us on a job well done.”

“Performance?” thought Piotr worriedly.   What was going on?   Suddenly, Piotr felt a gun being pushed up his back and heard a low voice, “Back away from the wall, dirt bag.”

“You do not wish to threaten me in this manner, tovarisch ,” said Piotr slowly.

“Oh, a guy with a funny accent, eh?   What nationality are you? European or something?” sneer the guard holding the gun.

“You will see soon enough,” said Piotr and then he turned his body to steel and suddenly grabbed the guard and started gripping him in a death grip where he was slightly squeezing the guard, careful not to kill him but just simply make him unconscious.   Unfortunately, even though Piotr succeeded in knocking the guard unconscious, several other guards suddenly came running up towards Piotr and had him surrounded.

“Well, well, well!   It appears that we have an intruder in our midst, gentlemen!   Or should I say, a fugitive?” said a slick voice behind Piotr.

Piotr stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to see Nigel Faust standing right at the doorway of his office.   Piotr then cursed himself for being so reckless, but said politely to Nigel, “Nigel Faust, I presume?”

“Yes, and you must be…Colossus,” said Nigel coolly.

“How do you know my name?” asked Piotr.

“Oh, it’s not that surprising that I see your name on the wanted posters these days.   It’s amazing how the law had never caught up to you yet.   Although, I have a mind to call the law enforcements right now, unless you tell me what you are doing here,” said Nigel quietly yet in a dangerous tone.

Piotr thought quickly and then said, “Umm…I had heard so much about your accomplishments that I wanted to visit you in person.   I guess I got a bit too excited and started wandering around the building until I got lost and ended up here.   I know that I should have contacted you first about my coming here, but I just could not resist meeting you in person!”

Piotr privately hoped that Nigel would buy that lie, even though he was never very good at lying.   But, Nigel just looked at Piotr with a cool gaze and said, “That’s alright.   I didn’t notice that I have many…fans.   Gentlemen, please escort Colossus to the exit and make sure that the security in this building is handled much better in the future.   And also do something about the guard that is lying unconscious in the hallway.”

The two guards then took Piotr away and left him outside of the building and went back inside.   Piotr then looked up at the building and said to himself, “This is very strange indeed.   I was not able to get enough information about this man, but from what I have heard from his conversation about his “performance,” he cannot be trusted.   I must watch out for him.”  

As Piotr walked away from the building, Nigel was looking down at Piotr through the window of his office.   Nigel then told his guards, “Gentlemen, it seems that Colossus seems to know too much about our plans.   We must keep him…busy so that way our plans will never be discovered.”

Later on…

Piotr was walking down the streets of New York City, witnessing the destruction of the city caused by the alien attack early on.   As Piotr gazed around the streets, he started to remember about when he was the avatar of the Cyttorak and how he had ran rampant in the streets in order to defeat Cain Marko’s reign of terror.   These were memories that Piotr wished that he could forget since they were extremely painful for him.    
 
  Suddenly, Piotr heard high-pitched screams coming from the top of a building and he saw yet another alien being attacking an innocent bystander.

“Another alien attack?” Piotr asked puzzled.
 

Piotr wasted no time in running towards the building and once he reached the top of the building, he grabbed the alien and threw him several feet across the streets.   Piotr looked on with satisfaction on his face, not noticing that another alien was watching him from above. The other alien then jumped on Piotr’s back and caused Piotr to struggle with the alien as he tried to get the alien off of him. As Piotr was struggling with the alien, he and the alien were suddenly blown off the build by a big explosion.   As Piotr landed on the ground, he then looked up to see where the explosion came from and out from the smoke, stood an African-American man who had tattoos all over his body.   When the alien, who was on Piotr moments ago, saw the man and tried to attack him, the mysterious man suddenly slashed the alien in the belly and dark purple blood squirted out of the alien’s body.

Piotr stared at the man in shock and then asked, “Who are you?”

The mysterious man just looked at Piotr with a wide smile on his face and said, “Just a friend, buddy! Just a friend!”

Chapter 3: A New Friend!

“A…friend?” Piotr asked the mysterious man.   As Piotr looked at this man, he noticed that this man was not quite as ordinary as any other human being he has seen.   For one thing, how often is it that a human being would suddenly jump out in a cloud of smoke and slice open an alien in a few seconds? Another thing that was odd about this man was that he had white tattoos all over his body, although his black jumpsuit was covering his body head to toe.   The man’s eyes were a deep brown color that really made him look quite distinguished and his hair was in dreadlocks that were tied up in a ponytail. Piotr cautiously approached the man and asked again, “Who are you?”

“Ah, I could ask the same about you.   Now, don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but you have one weird accent.   Is it European?” asked the man.

“Russian,” said Piotr, a bit annoyed.

“Oh, so that’s what it is!   Well, I might as well introduce myself then.   I’m Jerome Brown and I can tell by the look on your face that you’re wondering how I am able to produce knives out of nowhere.” Jerome than produced the knives from his hands and then they disappeared quickly.   “It’s because I am an alchemist.   Well, not exactly. I’m actually a mutant who has the ability to produce weapons out of my bare hands.   I also can cause small explosions by creating bombs out of my hands.”

Piotr just looked at Jerome in surprise and said, “I have never seen another mutant who could produce weapons out of their hands before.   How…”

Piotr was then interrupted by some yells at the bottom of the building.

“Well, it seems that we have some fans down there,” said Jerome.

“Fans?” Piotr said puzzled.

“You’ll see,” said Jerome and he and Piotr headed down to the bottom of the building to meet up with the people.   Unfortunately, when the people saw that Jerome and Piotr were mutants, they started screaming at them:

“Mutant scum! They brought that alien here to attack our city!” yelled one of the protesters.

“Get out of here you stinking mutants! We don’t want you here!” cried the protesters as they started throwing rocks and trash at Piotr and Jerome.   Piotr and Jerome than ran away from the protesters and came upon an abandoned part of the city.

“Man! We just don’t catch a break here!” said Jerome irritated.

“Well, this certainly was not the first time this has happened to me, my friend,” said Piotr, “This is just the tragic life of being a mutant.”

“Yeah, don’t I know it?   Hey, now that we are on speaking terms, I forgot to ask your name.   What is your name?” asked Jerome.

“Umm…I am…” Piotr stuttered, not wanting to give away his name or his X-Men codename.

“Say, you wouldn’t happened to be one of the mutants that the Avengers are chasing after, are you?” asked Jerome.

Piotr stiffened at Jerome’s inquiry and Jerome quickly said, “Hey, hey, don’t worry. I’m not going to turn you in.   Colossus is it?”

Piotr nodded slowly and Jerome continued, “Well, you don’t have to worry about me turning you in or anything.   Actually, I should say that you and me are in the same boat as in we both seem to be running away from the law.”

Piotr looked surprised and said, “You are on the run from the law also?   But what did you do that would make the police come after you?”

Jerome looked down on the ground for a second and then looked up at Piotr and said, “I’ll tell you more about it later.   For now, let’s find a place to crash for the night.”

“Wait a minute.   Forgive me for saying this, but I do not know you very well and well, I am on the run from the law and it is hard for me at the moment to go off with anyone,” said Piotr miserably.

“That’s alright. I understand your situation and I can see why you wouldn’t trust me at the moment, but like I said, I’ll explain more about myself once we find a place to crash.   You got a place where we could go to?” asked Jerome.

“Well, there is this old abandoned building I stayed at last night.   It is not much, but it will have to do at the moment,” said Piotr.

“That’s fine! Let’s go!” said Jerome, following Piotr.

Piotr and Jerome then went to the old building that Piotr had stayed at last night and the two mutants went to the old mattress and sat down on it.  

“Nice place, for your typical old abandoned building,” said Jerome impressed.

“Yes, it is.   So, about what you had said earlier, why are you on the run from the law?” asked Piotr.

“Well, here’s my story and since it’s really tragic, I don’t normally discuss this with anyone else, but here it goes.   Like many mutants at a young age, I was seven years old when I first discovered my mutant powers and even though I’ve learned how to create things out of my hands, I still couldn’t get control of handling the explosions whenever I created bombs.   My parents were at first shocked about my new powers and the fact that I was able to create weapons, for my parents despised weapons of any kind.   But, my parents really did love me and they tried to keep my powers a secret from the world.   But one tragic day, there was a leak somehow that I was able to create weapons out of my hands and the neighbors thought that I was a walking nuclear bomb and they wanted to kill me before I discovered my full potential.   My parents tried to protect me from the mutant protesters, but…” Jerome paused and took a deep breath and said, “But they were shot by the protesters and died right in front of my eyes.”

Piotr looked shocked and then said, “Oh Jerome, I am so sorry for your loss.”

Jerome nodded and then continued, “Well, my troubles didn’t end there.   After I saw my parents’ lifeless bodies on the ground, I just lost control of my powers and ended up throwing bombs all over the place, blowing up not only the protesters, but my home too.”  

Jerome wiped at his eyes and sighed.

“What did you do after that horrible event?” asked Piotr.

“Well, after that tragic event, I just ran away from it all.   I was only a child at the time and I didn’t know what to do.   After I ran away, the police came and surveyed the area and they guessed that a mutant was responsible for the destruction.   Worst yet, they found out that I had lived there and tried to take me into custody.   But I escaped and the police never found me and for the past twenty years, I was living on my own, trying to gain a new identity for myself so no one will find me again.   You’re actually the only person that I have told my story to, since I saw that you were in the same situation as I was,” said Jerome.

Piotr looked down and then said, “Are the police still looking for you?”

“To be honest, it’s been years since I’ve last check up on the police, so it’s possible that they’re still after me.   That’s why I always have to be careful where I go in case the police find me again,” said Jerome.

“Well, I supposed that we are fugitives together,” said Piotr.

“Yep! Fugitives now and forever,” said Jerome jokily.

Piotr laughed and then Jerome’s beeper started to beep and then Jerome said, “Oh! I got something I need to do really quickly!   I guess I’ll see you later!”

“But wait! Is it something urgent that you might need some assistance on?” asked Piotr concerned.

“Nope! It’s just one of my daily routines that I usually do during the day and I really got to get to it!   Well, it was nice meeting you!   Bye, Colossus!”   Jerome then ran out of the building and disappeared into the streets.

Piotr watched Jerome and he said to himself, “Hmm…that is one unusual man right there.   I wonder if I will truly see him again.”

Piotr then put on his cloak and started walking out into the streets, trying to find some way to make it through the day in one piece.

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